Baseball's Tenuous Battle for Important Stuff: 6 Days To Go

Note: Baseball Before Bedtime will no longer be seen on Walkoff Walk in 2008 so that we may bring you short and mildly amusing recaps about games that made a goddamn difference in the race for the postseason. Sorry, Blue Jays fans.

Indians 4, Red Sox 3: Down one in the ninth, noted panty-remover Jed Lowrie whiffed with the tying and winning runs on base to keep the Yankees alive in the playoff race. Josh Beckett was mediocre enough to lose his tenth decision.

Rays 4, Orioles 2: The Rays big win increases their lead over the Sox to 2.5 and drops their magic number to four. Both teams went hitless over the first four innings, as Rays young stud David Price and Orioles young...umm...person Brian Bass matched poor controls head-on.

Phillies 6, Braves 2: With a four-run eighth inning, the Phillies gave notice to all relief pitchers: we're going to hammer your asses into the ground. Or something. Someone named Jeff Bennett was the victim du jour on this go-around. Thanks to Pat Burrell, The Fightins' homered in their 18th straight contest, a club record.

Cubs 9, Mets 5: Starter Jason Marquis hit a tetra tot in his big homecoming game to put the Cubbies up 6-2 in the fourth. The Mets never recovered. They fall 3 back of the Phillies, who now have a magic number of 4. Meanwhile, the Cubs have managed to win 95 games and manager Lou Piniella is habla-ing something I don't understand.

In other news, the Diamondbacks picked up a half game to stay on the right page. OOPS I BORKENED THE WEBSITE